Craighead County Solid Waste Disposal Authority's New Website!

The great folks from Craighead County Solid Waste Disposal Authority joined us on Tuesday, August 20th at the Arkansas State University Small Business and Technology Development Center's 9th "Website in a Day" workshop in Jonesboro.

Along with 11 other area organizations and businesses the folks at Legacy Landfill joined us for a busy hands-on training session to learn to create great websites using Weebly. See their website by clicking on the image above OR going to Legacy Landfill.

Two days after the class Starla R. from Legacy Landfill emailed to let me know they were LIVE! and ready to greet visitors! Legacy incorporated many features of the Weebly free tools into their new site and created a functional, attractive and easy to navigate site. Great work folks!

Swing by Legacy Landfill website and say "Hi".. we also encourage you to "Like" them on their great Facebook Page and get in now to follow them on their brand new Twitter site... Just another example of how area organizations can leverage the tools available through the ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center. Great Job Legacy and thanks for spending a day with us at Website in a Day!

"Thank you so much for the Website in a Day class. Very informative and interesting. I have really enjoyed putting together our website for Legacy Landfill. It is still a work in progress, but I am now ready to share the link (we purchased the domain name). www.legacylandfill.orgThank you again! Starla R."Learn more about upcoming Website in a Day workshops and other assistance from the ASU SBTDC below.

More Website in a Day workshops coming to Northeast & North-Central Arkansas in October! Hands on classes that will help you create a website for your small business. If you can "Drop and Drag" you can create a website... Promise!

Another Website in a Day Published!

Thanks Brenda S. who came to our Batesville Website in a Day workshop with Weebly and has posted her "shiny" new website Shelby Town Leasing!

Great way for small companies with long term rental to show off their property, connect with potential renters and share information about the surrounding area. Thanks again Brenda for letting us know and thank you to all of our "Web Site in a Day" folks...Got your website ready to share with the world? Just let us know!

SEO Scams and How to Avoid Them

Say NO! To SEO Scammers

Scammers and con artists have found a fertile "hunting ground" on the internet targeting small businesses. Have you ever gotten a phone call or an email from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist promising to put you on Page One of Google?...for a modest fee of course..?

These unsolicited contacts are becoming more and more frequent...some of the snake oil peddlers even claim to be calling from GOOGLE! Which of course they are not...

So how do you know if the person offering to improve your SEO is legitimate or not? Check out this video by Eric Spellmann with Spellmann and Associates and he will share the truth about SEO Scammers, how to know if you are talking to one, and how to steer clear of their promises...after all...if it sounds too good to be true...it probably is.

Now it is your turn...have you had an experience with an internet scam artist? Let us know.

Robert Bahn, Business Consultant keeps our small business owners on task during our Website in a Day workshop in Batesville last week. Packed room 16 attendees cranking out great websites!

Just a quick update to all our Weebly friends and those folks who plan to attend our Website in a Day workshop in the future! Since April we have taught 7 Website in a Day workshops in 6 different locations around Northeast and North-Central Arkansas with more to come. 78 small business owners have turned out for our day long program and worked with us to help get their organizations found online. Learn about upcoming workshops at our Weebly Training Schedule and grab a seat.

You can also read our latest AState Small Business blog article all about our training, check out the video and share with your friends. Looking forward to seeing the great websites you build and want to share with our friends. Meanwhile check out our latest YouTube Video about our classes, below.

Weebly App for Smart Phones - Manage Your Website on the Go

For all our Website in a Day participants here is a neat application for your smart phone from Weebly (and it is free!) to use when you want to keep in touch with your website while you are on the go.

Weebly app is a great tool I found that lets me:

Check my visitors through the stats page by day,

Check on whether anyone has signed up on my contact forms to include the name, email address and if they sent a message,

Write and post blog posts,

Check comments on blog posts and respond,

Connect to social media and more.

Just go to your apps store, type in "Weebly" and download it for free.

Below are a few screen shots to show you what you will get.

Get a quick snap shot of visitors while you are on the go.

As you can see over the past seven days our ASU Website in a Day site has had 97 unique visitors and 107 page views.

Note the "More Stats" at the bottom: If you are a "pro" user for Weebly you can also get additional statistics about your visitors.

However, if you have added Google Analytics to your site you will get a wealth of information every time you check in.

If you haven't grabbed your FREE Google Analytics and embedded it into your weebly site that should be your next priority.

Started your blog on Weebly?

If you have created a blog your mobile app will let you view:

Published posts like mine,

See who has "commented" on your posts,

Respond to comments,

Even write posts and publish while you are on the go.

See the menu at the bottom of the image on the right.

If you haven't set up your Blog yet....that should be next on your "To Do" list.

Even when you are out of the office you can manage your Weebly website wherever you happen to be.

If you want to keep in touch with visitors to your Weebly website and if you have a smartphone then grab the Weebly free application and put it to work!

Like this post? Then do us a favor, leave a comments and share on your social networks. Once you download the app, let us know what you think of it. I love it as a way to stay on top of what is happening with our Weebly Website in a Day visitors.

Balancing Content with Design for an Optimized Website

To get the most out of a website today it is important to find a balance between making your website searchable by web crawlers for search engine optimization AND a well designed site to keep visitors engaged.

Ranking well on search engines does you no good if your design does not grab the visitor once he lands on your page and encourage them to stay to visit other pages, watch your videos, or fill out your forms.

In other words you must find a good balance between "feeding" the spider-bots for SEO (search engine optimization) and "feeding" the human visitor for HEO (human eye optimization). Both are critical to get the most out of your new website.

Is one more portent than the other? If so which one? And, what are your options?

Since "experts" in web design and SEO spend their entire careers trying to answer this question I thought it would be best for our readers to hear (and see) what one expert had to say.

Below is a short video (5minutes) by Eric Spelmann, with Spellmann and Associates, a web design and Internet marketing firm out of Amorillo, TX. I met Eric at a national association meeting several years ago and have been following his on-line tips ever since. The video below was posted last week about the balance of content and design and is well worth watching.

One important piece to rember is that search engines, especially Google, are constantly tweaking the algorithm or mathematical formula to make search more efficient. Sometimes it is a major overhaul which means you need to stay "in the loop" on changes how it will impact your search performance.

Spellmann's blog is a good resource that is worth adding to your RSS feed to stay informed and be an effective online marketer.

The Impact of Color On Website Visitors - What Marketers Need to Know

In our recent ASU Small Business Blog we shared the infographic below about the Psychology of Color and how it impacts your website visitors. Very handy infographic below that helps you understand the value of color and impact on your visitor. You can also read our entire blog post on color here:

Author

Herb Lawrence has been the Center Director for the Arkansas State University SBTDC for 17 years. During this time Herb and his staff have worked with thousands of small business owners in Northeast & North-Central Arkansas